Agri-Pulse Daybreak for July 27, 2016

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2016 - Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack skipped last night’s session of the Democratic convention to give an
impassioned plea for agriculture leaders to support Hillary Clinton over Donald
Trump.

Speaking at an agribusiness reception in downtown
Philadelphia, Vilsack said he had “never been involved in a political campaign
where the choice was as stark and as clear and the consequence as dire. He said
Clinton is a “problem solver,” while Trump is a problem maker.”

Vilsack, who was reportedly a finalist to be Clinton’s
running mate, also described Clinton as someone who will listen to the concerns
of agriculture, in contrast to Trump, whom Vilsack said “only listens to
himself.”

The one agricultural issue that Vilsack touched on
specifically was immigration, which is probably the single policy area where
there is a clear difference between Clinton and Trump that benefits the
Democrats when it comes to the concerns of farmers.

“Everyone in this room knows that we have a broken
immigration system,” Vilsack said. “A solution is not a wall. A solution is
bringing people together over a difficult issue and forging a sound, solid
policy that allows people who have been here for a long time, who have helped
to support our agricultural economy, to be able to find their
way to legitimacy.”

Historic moment: Farmer announces key number. Clinton
officially claimed the party’s nomination over Bernie Sanders earlier in the
evening during the roll call of state delegations. South Dakota put Clinton
over the top at 2,395 votes. She needed 2,383 to clinch. Ann Tornberg, a dairy
producer from Beresford, S.D., who chairs the South Dakota Democratic Party,
got to announce the state’s historic vote count.

Stabenow announces Michigan votes. The ranking Democrat
on the Senate Agriculture Committee, Debbie Stabenow, announced Michigan’s
votes on behalf of the “hard working men and women … who make things and grow
things for America.” Michigan provided 81 votes to Clinton and 66 to
Sanders.

The delegate who announced Montana’s votes described Montana
as the home of the “only farmer” in the Senate, Jon Tester. Iowa’s Charles
Grassley has long taken pride in calling himself a farmer, although his son manages
the family operation.

Clinton plans rural push. Trevor Dean, a volunteer
leading the “Rural for Hillary” coalition, told Democratic delegates yesterday
that rural voters will be impressed with Hillary when they learn about her
record as a senator from New York and her work on food security issues as
secretary of state. “We want everyone in rural America to understand that
Secretary Clinton is looking out for them,” Dean said at a meeting of the
convention’s Rural Council.

After the meeting, Dean met with some agribusiness leaders
to discuss ways of improving Clinton’s rural outreach program.

Pelosi announces opposition to TPP. Groups opposed to
the Trans-Pacific Partnership yesterday released a letter that House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi sent last week to constituents, telling them that she’s
opposed to the trade deal in its current form. Pelosi had opposed giving
President Obama fast-track negotiating authority so her letter is not a big
surprise.

Groups target delegates with ‘DARK Act’ ad. Groups
opposed to the GMO disclosure bill that passed Congress this month took out a
full-page ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The ad urges readers to appeal to
President Obama to veto the bill. Obama has yet to sign the bill but there’s no
reason to believe he’s changed his mind about doing so. The House sent the
measure to the White House July 19.

Food banks struggle to get attention to nutrition. Delegates
to every party convention find that there are endless invitations to
receptions, lunches and other events. But the national network of food banks,
Feeding America, has been trying to draw lawmakers and delegates to a different
sort of event to focus their attention on the issue of hunger and federal
nutrition policy. It hasn’t been easy to do.

At the Republican convention last week, Feeding America
invited lawmakers to a summer feeding program in Cleveland. This week,
lawmakers were invited to help fill bags of rice at the Philadelphia-area food
bank, called Philabundance,
located in a warehouse district near the convention site.

Only one of the dozen Democratic lawmakers who RSVP’d showed
up, but he’s an important one: Massachusetts congressman Jim McGovern, the
ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee’s subcommittee on
nutrition.

McGovern applied nutrition facts labels to small bags of
donated rice, and he also got to inspect one of the boxes of food provided
monthly to 4,000 area senior citizens under USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food
Program. The box included two cans each of carrots, green beans and pears,
bottles of juice, peanut butter, a bag of oatmeal and two boxes of shelf-stable
milk. The program is available in 45 states.

Lisa Davis, senior vice president of government relations
for Feeding America, said security measures, traffic tie-ups and other
conflicts have made it difficult to get members of Congress to the food bank
events. Two Republican congressmen appeared at the event in Cleveland, along
with the wife of Arkansas Sen. John Boozman.

Wheat growers latest to turn on Huelskamp. The National
Association of Wheat Growers is the latest farm group to endorse Kansas Rep.
Tim Huelskamp’s challenger in his Republican primary Aug. 2. NAWG is the fourth
national group to throw its support behind physician Roger Marshall, joining
the National Sorghum Producers, the Dairy Farmers of America, and the National
Corn Growers Association.

Marshall also has endorsements from the Kansas Farm Bureau,
the Kansas Livestock Association, and the ethanol group Renew Kansas.

This week’s guest on Open Mic is Ken Dallmier, President and COO of Clarkson Grain Company. While the global grain business is dominated by supply, demand and now trade wars, this Illinois-based company functions under a customer-focused mindset. Dallmier says this generation of consumer demand is dominated by a different set of social values leading to questions over the way food is produced and the prices they’re willing to pay. Sustainability, organic and non-GMO are providing farmers an income stream isolated from traditional market forces.

Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator of the Andrew Wheeler recently announced their intent to reassess and correct the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

The world of agriculture extends beyond what’s growing in your field or living in your barn, and here at Agri-Pulse, we understand that. We make it our duty to inform you of the most up-to-date agricultural and rural policy decisions being made in Washington D.C. and examine how they will affect you – the farmer, the lobbyist, the government employee, the educator, the consultant and the concerned citizen.